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Lionsgate Announces Film Adaptation Of Dead Island

Before we get to it, let us refresh your memory: a certain promotional video for Dead Island raised quite the ruckus, remember?

It threw Techland's open-world zombie-slayin' adventure into the limelight, even if the trailer wasn't indicative of the gameplay (or even the story, for that matter). But it was so good that it attracted attention elsewhere and now, Lionsgate has a big announcement.

Today, Lionsgate has revealed it has optioned film rights from publisher Deep Silver to develop a film feature inspired by Dead Island. Lionsgate co-COO and Motion Picture Group President Joe Drake made the announcement and clearly, he and others were swayed by the tremendous impact of that emotional, dramatic trailer. The ad, by the way, got over 1 million hits in the first 24 hours of its arrival online, and nearly 10 million views after two days. Wired Magazine, College Humor and G4TV all dubbed it the best video game trailer of all time. It even won the Golden Lion in Cannes at the International Festival of Creativity, which is the advertising industry's highest honor.

Dead Island will also inspire upcoming graphic novels, full novels, and "other extensions." The film "will be an innovation of the zombie genre because of its focus on human emotion, family ties and non-linear storytelling." Said Drake:

"Like the hundreds of journalists and millions of fans who were so passionate and vocal about the Dead Island trailer, we too were awestruck. This is exactly the type of property we’re looking to adapt at Lionsgate – it’s sophisticated, edgy, and a true elevation of a genre that we know and love. It also has built in brand recognition around the world, and franchise potential."

The movie is currently in the "early development stage" but already has producers: Sean Daniel ("The Mummy," "Tombstone," "Dazed and Confused") will be at the helm through his Sean Daniel Company, and Stefan Sonnenfeld, a pioneer in the production field who has worked with J.J Abrams, Michael Bay and Gore Verbinski, will assist as well. The game shipped over 1 million units in its first week and received critical acclaim; we liked it, too, despite a few technical misgivings.

Probably that trailer is what even got people's attention, I knew about this game way back in 2008 or 2009 whichever one. I remember reading they had problems with the ps3 version in development or something.

yeah the trailer was what got me to pay some attention to this game, but i have yet to try the game out. Looks kool though i don't think there's a lot of FPS zombie survival horrors out so definitely some originality right there

I just snagged DI off ebax. Can't wait to hack some zombs this weekend.

I still can't believe people were so blown away by that trailer, it was really good but wow just because you do some obvious emotional appeal and run it backwards people get that in a tizzy? I mean, Memento was good but not revolutionary.

Anyway, Lionsgate usually get's a B+ with this kind of thing so I'm going to be optimistic.

I will only see this if the theme song remains, "Who do you Voodoo, Bitch!?" and if Phil LaMarr gets to play the role Sam B.

In all seriousness, I will more than likely see this no matter what they decide to do to the story. If they follow the people from the trailer (IDK how, but Hollywood could figure that) it could be a good story, or any family dynamic like that. However what would make me appreciate a film based on the game would be to actual references, and nods to the work of the devs over at Techland, cameos or references to the game for the players to really feel that connection to the game.

What they should avoid... Resident Evil, where the games and films are vastly different with loose connections to the VG characters, and zombies really being the only anchors for players of the games to associate to the game we loved. If they wanted to do it close right, they should have followed the book. At the very least

Sorta related to the topic. Anyone else seen the nude video/images of one of the girls in Dead Island? Evidently she wears a skirt and doesn't have any underwear underneath, it's pretty funny. Full on vaginal glory.

What's funny is how up in arms people got over it, meanwhile you're decapitating undead humans with blood pouring out all over the sand. You'd almost have to be looking for it to see Xian's cooter, I bet some dev at techland is really getting his Lulz right now though.

oh lord another game to movie adaptation!i can see it now, a cheesy plot line, mindless action staring the rock.hey, that sounds familiar, wonder why.........ah, yes that crappy doom movie!god, ill never get that night of my life back.:(